Tiger Tiger Burning Bright: A Poem for Tiger Woods and Golf
Written by Shen Delano on Friday, May 21st, 2010The poem supposedly dedicated to Tiger Woods gets good attention as Wimbledon announces that it has appointed Matt Harvey as its official poet. Harvey is tasked to compose one poem day for the entire two-weeks of the Wimbledon.
Matt Harvey’s first poem for the Wimbledon is entitled “The Grandest of Slams” This development makes him the first person to hold this position. Besides Wimbledon there are other poets who gives attention to various sporting events and one of them is William Blake.
Here is William Blake’s “Tiger Tiger Burning Bright” poem:
The Tiger Poem
by William Blake
Tiger Tiger burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye.
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile His work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
Tiger Tiger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?